Finding first unique number.

Introduction

Recently I took a test to find the first unique number in an array. I did manage to produce the right answer but it was computationally too expensive. This post is the result of looking into alternatives

Original Solution

var y = numberArray.GroupBy(z => z).Where(z => z.Count() == 1)
                                   .Select(z => z.Key).ToList();
 if (y.Count > 0) actual = y[0];

Alternatives

I asked for help on Stack Overflow as I want to see how other devs approached the solution and the following are alternatives where suggested.

1. Change from y.Count to y.Any
2. numberArray.GroupBy(g => g).Where(w => w.Count() == 1).Select(s => s.Key).FirstOrDefault();
3. numberArray.ToLookup(x => x).First(x => x.Count() == 1).Key;
4. numberArray.GroupBy(x => x).First(x => x.Count() == 1).Key;

In order to make head or tail of the speed difference I decided to run some tests, the template for each test is.

    var sw = new System.Diagnostics.StopWatch2() { ShowStatsForEachLoop = false };
    int actual = 0;
    //////////////////////////////////////
    sw.Restart();
    sw.Start();
    for (int i = 0; i < Iterations; i++)
    {
       ///
         Find comparison here
       ///
        sw.RestartAndLog();
    }
    sw.Stop();

Test Results

Switching to use .Any() was surprising how big a difference it made. The other surprise was the difference between .GroupBy() and .ToLookup()

If you want speed then you should look at using tradtional loops instead of LINQ.

All solutions where run 50 times with an array of 9 numbers the last number being the unique number. The results below record the average number of CPU ticks for each test.

Ticks
   Min   Max     Avg  Result
    2  14502     584  -3     Original
    2    919      40  -3     if (y.Any()) actual = y[0];
    2   1423      60  -3     a.GroupBy(g => g).Where(w => w.Count() == 1)
                                            .Select(s => s.Key)
                                            .FirstOrDefault();
    2   1553      65  -3     a.ToLookup(i => i).First(i => i.Count() == 1).Key;
    2    317      15  -3     a.GroupBy(i => i).First(i => i.Count() == 1).Key;
    1     4        2  -4     Traditonal loops

Source Code

The source code can be found on gitHub @ https://github.com/hungrydev/FirstUniqueNumberExporation